brimstoneSalad wrote:
Go vegan, quit smoking, quit drinking (alcohol, the evidence suggests that a little coffee is healthy), lose weight, adopt a sport, do more activism, etc.
There are objectively good things we can and should embrace as positive changes in ourselves. Don't look at it so much as changing something that's part of your identity to become somebody else for another, but as changing for yourself, inspired by another.
Well stated, but I like beer. Craft beer, to be more specific. Not to get drunk, but for the taste. I probably have 2 beers a week on average. I'll order one with dinner on occasion. I like going to craft beer festivals two or three times a year and attend "Geeks Who Drink" trivia bimonthly with friends. It's more of a hobby than a vice. I could give it up and be fine, just haven't encountered a reason to. Becoming vegan has saved countless lives while drinking beer is only harmful to myself.
As for the other activities, I'm in pretty good shape and enjoy running. Other sports, too. Though golf is one and golf courses are an environmental pox. I definitely strive to be more of an activist, but even then I think I'd be able to juggle that and the occasional beer.
Seachants wrote:
Well, the reasons I don't drink (alcohol)* and also look for someone else who doesn't are many:
1) Little to no nutritional value.
Correct. It's the nutritional equivalent of eating half a loaf of Wonder bread.
2) Personal taste aversion (when I learned about "supertasters," that explained it). If a partner drinks it very minimally and only for the taste, and he also doesn't try to get me to do so, I don't mind that. However, prior experience tells me that people typically try to get a partner to drink it with them (same with pot-smokers trying to get a partner to smoke pot with them), so I figure we're both happier if we have the same preference here.
3) Conformity despite one's actual preferences, among some who do it, an inclination I don't have. Even people I've met who say they don't like the taste and/or effect of alcohol drink it anyway to fit in during social events. I prefer not to give people an inaccurate understanding of my actual preferences.
Commendable.
4) Drinking for the effect, to the point of intoxication, with the reason that it's more enjoyable than sobriety implies that you think you're too boring or that your company bores you too much for you to enjoy your awareness of reality. I don't deliberately dull my awareness of reality except when I go to sleep or take pain killer for operations.
Agreed. That's the high school reasoning for drinking and it's not one I've subscribed to in a long while.
5) Most people who consider alcohol an essential part of their social life wouldn't fit into my social life, nor I in theirs. I prefer to at least fit in with each other's friends (though we don't have to all be friends) on social occasions. A party is probably more enjoyable when you're not the only one who is not drugging yourself, just as I suppose it's probably more enjoyable when you're not the only one who is drugging yourself.
It's definitely a common thread with my close group of friends. That and sports fandom. I guess I'd only consider myself and my best friend intellectuals, or aspiring intellectuals anyway. For the rest I guess they're still suck at #4 to a degree. They need the wheels greased to 'up' their conversation ability.
*I do drink. Fruit juices, smoothies, the elixir of life... I just find it interesting when "drink" refers to only one type of drink, even though there are so many different ones. Maybe it's an instance of overgeneralization, where the most used or most loved subcategory get used synonymously with the general category name. It's like when people say Kleenex when they mean tissue. I don't think most people drink alcohol more often than other drinks, but they love it the most, so it incorrectly gets used synonymously with the general category name.
I also drink 160 ounces of water a day. I like the alcohol as 'drink' colloquialism. The types of drinks you describe are nourishing and in that sense almost food.
What are other Colorado-based stereotypes?
Marijuana. Was trying to be cute in regards to it's legality here. I have a medical card and it's really been an instrumental tool in regards to managing my anxiety. I actually haven't smoked in several months, and it's something I could live without doing again, but I appreciate it as a natural alternative to animal-tested and highly addictive pharmaceuticals. I suppose if I broke my leg I wouldn't limp over the dispensary, though. I'd want the hard stuff.